One day before the end, Elfyn Evans continues to have everything on his side to win the Rally of Japan, the final round of the World Rally Championship (WRC). He finished Saturday with over a minute lead, with Toyota threatening to monopolize the podium, after rain returned to some of the stages.
It wasn’t an easy day for the British driver. SS9 (Nukata Forest 1) started Saturday’s day, with Sébastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) taking the first place and Evans (Toyota) in third, 31 seconds behind. The cancellation of the stage halfway through left four drivers with nominal times: Katsuta, Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford), Thierry Neuville, and Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai).
After Katsuta set the pace in SS10 (Lake Mikawako 1), Evans was the fastest in the two passes through the Okazaki City super special stage, ending the morning with a 1m35.5s margin. Rovanperä was third, 2m10.7s behind, and Lappi moved up to fourth overall by swapping positions with Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda).
In the afternoon, Katsuta was superior, with three wins in four stages, while Evans gradually lost ground to Ogier, finishing the day 1m15s ahead of the Frenchman. Rovanperä is third, 1m40.6s behind. Lappi ended the day with the best time in SS16 at the Toyota Stadium, being fourth overall, 3m09.3s off the top. Tänak is fifth ahead of Katsuta.
The sixth-placed driver is Mikkelsen. The Norwegian is making the most of his WRC2 champion status, having only lost three stages on Saturday in the category. He leads with a 43.3s advantage over Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda), while the Russian is 6m57s ahead of Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda) in the WRC2 Challenger standings. Heikki Kovalainen (Skoda) was Gryazin’s main pursuer until he dropped out of contention with transmission problems in SS15. However, by that time, he was already over four minutes behind his rival. Jason Bailey, the only WRC3 driver in the lineup, continues in 25th place in the overall classification.
Top ten overall after SS16:
